The Atlanta Braves stunned most of the baseball world on Saturday, pulling off their second big trade of the offseason and, just as the first one, doing it at a surprising time.

Atlanta followed up their acquisition of Jarred Kelenic from the Seattle Mariners, consummated on the eve of the MLB Winter Meetings, with an acquisition of Chris Sale from the Boston Red Sox on December 30th, the day before New Year’s Eve and when most of the baseball world (and media) is “out of office”.

Atlanta gave up only infielder Vaughn Grissom in the deal, with Boston covering $17M of Sale’s $27.5M salary for 2024 (and $10M of Atlanta’s remaining commitment to Sale is deferred, so their cash outlay for 2024 is only $500k.)

But what does Sale have to do with the Braves for Atlanta to have “won” the trade?

National MLB reporter Ken Rosenthal went on Foul Territory, hosted by former Braves catcher AJ Pierzynski, to give his take.

In Rosenthal’s opinion, Atlanta needs to not only have Sale pitch into the playoffs and pick up his club option for 2025 for the trade to be considered a success.

On the surface, it’s hard to argue that anything less isn’t a successful deal by Atlanta when you consider they gave up six seasons of Vaughn Grissom, a talented bat that, while not suited for shortstop duties, could be a capable second baseman.